Clinton reassures Japan before China visit
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The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Japan, on the first leg of a week-long tour of Asia, which will also cover China, South Korea and Indonesia.
Mrs Clinton has chosen Asia over Europe, to begin her first overseas tour as America's top diplomat. She says her trip highlights Asia's place in America's future.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Brad Glosserman, executive director at the Pacific Forum, CSIS in Hawaii
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GLOSSERMAN: Well I think the US has recognised that Asia is truly an engine of global growth and that it's becoming one of the poles of international power, and it quite frankly it's sort of taken a secondary status in US foreign policy, overshadowed most recently by the crisis in the Middle East; Iraq, in southwest Asia and Israel, as well as more generally just in terms of its more comfortable trans-Atlantic relationship.
LAM: So it does seem then that America is very serious about needing to work with Asia to tackle the global financial crisis?
GLOSSERMAN: Absolutely but it goes beyond that, I think it's just a sense that US recognition of Asia's worth and value in the international political economy is long overdue and that we need to start putting Asia more at the front of our foreign policy, rather than perhaps as an afterthought.
LAM: Mrs Clinton of course, has already refuted the so-called China containment theory, but does the US have to balance its overtures to China with Japan where Mrs Clinton is at the moment - that it has to balance the two relationships?
GLOSSERMAN: Absolutely, it's a quite complex equation as well. I mean, the fact of the matter is, is that the United States and Japan are allies and we've been allies for over half a century. If anyone in my work or we're talking about US foreign policy, begins a discussion with, you say you're beginning a relationship and you're engaging with your alliances and the United States and Japan relationship and its alliances, the most important bilateral relationship bar none. That's been the boiler plate and the Japanese expect to hear that from any US official and any US administration. The problem unfortunately is that Japan as you noted in your previous story is encountering a great deal of difficulties; economic, political as well, and China's rise has changed the balance of power in the region. China is a vital player on so many interests and consequently, the United States has to reach out to China, but it has to do it in a way that doesn't unnerve the Japanese or make them feel as if they're being second best at the party.
LAM: And what about the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself... do you think she has a keener sense of Asia compared to her predecessor?
GLOSSERMAN: My sense is Mrs Clinton is an extremely smart study and she has a very, very good Asia team. I know that some of the folks that are working for her and they definitely understand the significance of the region, and I think that she understands if nothing else, the sense that the previous administration I think, probably didn't give Asia the due that it deserved or perhaps that Asians thought should have been given to them. So if nothing else, she has the benefit of eight years of hindsight.
LAM: The Secretary of State of course will also visit Indonesia, the gateway to ASEAN, what's likely to feature on the agenda there?
GLOSSERMAN: Well two things there, first of course is the sense that Mr Obama spent time in Indonesia, he wants to restores ties with a country that is of vital significance, the gateway to ASEAN, but certainly the gateway to the region. And part of that I think as well is there's going to be an attempt to re-engage ASEAN, and this was underway I think with the Bush administration, it got sidetracked by the problems in Myanmar and the difficulties of engaging ten, when that country is one of them. And so I think what you're going to see is an attempt to in some ways to begin to move that relationship forward and to recommit and put some more momentum behind relations with ASEAN.
LAM: And yet the US has not signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation with ASEAN ... is it time to do so?
GLOSSERMAN: I think so and I think that a lot of folks in the State Department have argued for it and certainly folks I know again that are consulting and providing advice and information for this administration. The problem has always been the question about the protocol to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, and the degree to which it might inhibit the US freedom of navigation on the seas, particularly for its military and for its nuclear weapons-carrying ships. So once those issues get taken care of, I would expect to see a great deal of progress relatively quickly.
